New Beginnings
by ToBeRoyal
Summary: Kiera is alone. Leo needs someone who he can share his true feelins with. They meet in the pit, and suddenly, everything is right. LeoxOC


_New Beginnings_

There's a place every camper goes when they feel down, a place where all the campers can just be depressed without interruption (excluding the occasional monster, of course). This was the pit near Zeus's Fist, the pit where the Battle of the Labyrinth once happened. That pit is what Kiera calls home.  
A place of misery is perfect for the daughter of Hecate, the one who has never felt like a part of a team, the girl's whose only friend died in that pit.  
The pit was comfort to Kiera. She would always lay down where she had last laughed with Haley, the daughter of Hermes who had lost her life protecting Kiera's own.  
Yet the pit was pain. Every leaf that fluttered down during fall was incinerated. Every bunny that hopped in was instantly dead. It killed everything that dared to enter. Except the campers. Except Kiera.  
So there she sat on one lonely Wednesday morning. Might've been Tuesday, she couldn't tell. Supposedly there were new campers. Kiera couldn't care less. These new campers would hear her story, and like all before them, regard her with disgust. She was pathetic, useless. She wasn't strong, she was weak. And she knew it.  
The forest was eerily quiet. It spooked Kiera, made her hair stand on end. It was as the forest was waiting with bated breath. Who would be the first to come?  
Piper. The girl hid behind a rock, but Kiera could sense her. Piper thought nothing of her, just that she needed to learn how to smile.  
Next was Jason. Kiera knew there was something different. She just wasn't sure what it was. He approached her and studied her, even sitting down with her a few minutes.  
Everyone would.  
Despite her title as loser scum, everyone would find their way to her and spend time with her in silence. To remember what was taken.  
Lastly was Leo.  
He looked like a Latino elf who had drank way too much coffee. But somehow, he just sat next to her, didn't twitch nor twiddle his thumbs. He didn't glance nervously at her. He just sat in silence.  
"I lost my mom," he said loudly. Kiera jumped, realizing he was talking to her. "She died in a fire."  
"I lost my best friend and father," Kiera shared, eyes brimming with tears. "My best friend died here, and my father was mugged, kidnapped, tortured, and killed." She leaned into Leo, closing her eyes. She didn't mind his scrawny figure. It made him cuter, somehow.  
When Leo spoke, his chest vibrated. "That sucks."  
Kiera let out a hollow chuckle. "I suppose it does."  
"I miss my mom a lot."  
"I understand," Kiera whispered. She grabbed Leo's hand and squeezed. "You have to be strong. You have to be able to face your fears and avenge your mother."  
"Come with me."  
"What?" She eyed him. "What do you mean?"  
"Leave the pit."  
She pondered on it. "I've never found such a simple request so demanding. For confusing me, I award you ten points. As in, yeah, I'll leave the pit." She stood, no, they stood.  
Leo smiled and cracked jokes.  
Kiera laughed and practiced spells.  
They returned each day before suddenly stopping in June.  
Haley's ghost watched sadly from a distance as the pitched tent covered in dust.

Leo and Kiera stood before the pit, thinking.  
"Why are we here?" she snapped.  
"It's where we first met."  
"Let's go," Kiera growled. "I-"  
Leo pulled her into a kiss.  
"Be my girlfriend," he said, grinning at her.  
"I've never found such a simple request so demanding," Kiera said, beaming. "For loving me, I award you fifty points. As in, yes, I will be your girlfriend Leo Valdez."

Leo and Kiera sat on the porch, watching little Haley and baby Charles toddle around the yard.  
"Who would guess that we met in such a depressing place?" Leo laughed heartily. Kiera smiled and intertwined her hand with Leo's.  
"I don't think it is anymore," she admitted. "I think us falling in love there, I think we change it's image. I know we did. Without us, that pit would still be a place of misery. Now, it's a place of new beginnings."  
New beginnings. Leo placed his hand on the growing baby bump. He liked the sound of that.

**A/N: My favorite of the one shots. I like Kiera a lot, maybe cuz I actually developed her unlike the others. Kiera is depressed daughter of Hecate who becomes completely cut off from the world when her only friend is killed and her father is murdered by monsters hunting down Kiera. Then, she meets Leo who inspires her to smile every once in a while. The kids are named after Kiera's best friend and Leo's brother who he never knew (Charles Beckondorf). **

_**~ToBeRoyal**_


End file.
